My Grandpa

It has been a while since my grandpa has passed, but I often still find myself missing him and his sense of humor, especially at the holidays.  I remember many great Christmas and Thanksgiving days with him and this year was especially hard since his house is now up for sale. After the new year, my mom decided that I needed to make peace with grandpa being gone and the house being for sale so we took a trip up to Charlo, MT so I could really say goodbye.

I've always thought of my grandpa as a pioneer.  In 3rd grade, I wrote a report on my grandpa because I thought he was one of a kind.  He was a ditch rider, a barber, a taxidermist, a gardener, a neighbor, a brother, and a friend. He could graft trees so it would grow apples on one side, plums on the other! I loved hearing all of his stories: he got kicked out of school for putting a snake (or was it a skunk?) in his teachers desk (I think the answer depends on who is telling this one), he put rubber fishing worms in his co-workers sandwiches at lunch time, and once convinced my mom to walk into a cave full of bats. He was always up for a good prank.

As a kid, going to see grandma and grandpa meant 3 things: 1) There will be dessert and it is ok (and even encouraged) to eat it before dinner, 2) There will be a fight over who gets to ride the riding lawn mower, and 3) There will be some kind of animal to play with, mostly unsupervised.

The animals: Grandpa raised birds, pigeons, pheasants, chickens, turkeys, etc. He had a chicken coop, a bird barn, a small fish pond, and a green house that was overrun with a different animal every few months (it was always exciting to visit, because you never knew what you would find.)  I can remember being very little and going out to the coop with my brother and sister to collect eggs and feed the birds every morning when we would visit. As we got older, we should have gotten in more trouble...

Meggie and I loved to pet grandpa's fish until they would go to "sleep" (fish heaven).  My poor grandpa probably bought hundreds of fish because each time we came by, we weren't leaving until all of the fish were sleeping.  I thought I had an amazing talent until 2nd grade when my teacher revealed that fish died out of water.

Its no secret that my brother is deathly afraid of mice.  One time, we were messing around in the bird barn right after grandpa specifically said "be sure not to let any of the birds out."  Since Russ was the oldest, it was his duty to go first to make sure there was nothing scary up there that could hurt his little sisters.  As the second oldest, it was my job to open the door and push him in!   Russ climbed the ladder, I opened the door,  a mouse came catapulting at Russ's face, Russ screams and throws himself off the ladder.  I thought by the caliber of his scream that there was a wild tiger in the bird barn so I booked it for the house- Meggie was left to fend for herself.  All of the pigeons that were in the barn flew out.  The three of us tried to come up with some kind of story to explain why we had done specifically what grandpa said not to do, but we figured that honesty was the best policy: Russ almost died.  Thankfully, he is alive, but the pigeons are gone.  Grandpa wasn't mad-

I also remember hunting for night crawlers when I was much older with grandpa in the back yard.  I was fully prepared to do most of the work since grandpa was getting up there in age.  He brought us to the side of the house which was the flower garden. Prepared with a bucket and a flashlight, we got to work.  Before we had been out there for two minutes, grandpa launched a glob of dirt that hit me smack in the side of my face. I was confused...I am sure it is a sin to hit your own grandpa with a glob of mud...he smiled and took advantage of my moral contemplation and hit me again! It was on!

So many good memories...

Grandpa was a twin! Bill (on the left) and Lewis, my grandpa, on the right.

During our trip to Charlo, we stopped to see Uncle Del (left) who is grandpa's brother.  He will be 93 on the 10th.  He had a stroke a few weeks ago, but must be doing ok, because he was out feeding horses when we pulled in! It was hard for me to listed to him talk, because he sounds so much and looks just like my grandpa who I miss so much.  It was good to see him- he told lots of good stories and even cracked himself up-often. He told me that he and grandpa saw each other every day for coffee, and they always had something to talk about.

The last time I talked to my grandpa, he was having a small heart attack in the hospital and still answered the phone.  It scared me, so I hung up. He called later to make sure that I was ok and to tell me that he loved me.  

When we went to Charlo to see grandpa's house, it didn't look at all like the place that we loved so much growing up.  The chicken coop was gone, the bird barns were gone, the fish pond had been filled in, and green house was uninhabited for the first time. The place that we loved so much as kids was only special because of the people who were inside the house.